Christmas Wishin'
by blinkblink
Summary: A Seto and Mokuba fic (gasp!). Come and follow Kaiba Seto's comical actions around the holiday season. He has never completely met Mokuba's wishes for an older brother but late's better than never!


Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, nor the characters. Please don't sue me!  
  
ANs: This is my first attempt at a fic centered around Seto and/or Mokuba, and only the second (I think...) that contains them at all (it's only now that I'm getting over my fear of Seto. He scares me sometimes. He played the overtaxed villain in my humor fic 'Yugioh does Robin Hood'). ANYway, this is a little more fluffy than I usually write, in fact I surprise myself with this. I hope you enjoy it, I know it's long but you can always read it in installments.  
  
Umm, the song that inserts towards the end is the translation of Ai wa Ryuusei from Gundam Wing, Trowa's character song. You can find the original Japanese lyrics (and the translation...) at www.animelyrics.com The stuff Mokuba asks for for Christmas that's listed is, of course, made up.   
  
Time note: This takes place after the Duelist Kingdom arc, but before Battle City. That would, of course, assume that winter happened between these two events, but I think we can manage that, right? ~.^  
  
And as always, you can find an .html copy of this, with italics in place of the _underscores_ at my fanfiction archive Rakuen (http://ctech.ca/Athena_Crikey/ff/)   
  
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Kaiba Seto was an idol. He was cool, he was smart, he was _rich_, and he was bored out of his mind. Oh sure, the holiday season was on, overzealous carolers with odd English pronunciation were running rampant, wreaths had taken the place of 'open hours' signs on store doors, and every house in town had been covered with hundreds of little coloured lights, some blinking, some hanging down, and some twisted so as to resemble little white reindeer. Kaiba was pretty sure that, whatever else they might be, reindeer were not white (or glowing). He also knew that carolers were annoying, wreaths had a bad habit of trying to tackle him and poke him in the eye with their sharp needles, and those little electric house lights were a death-trap waiting to happen for anyone with a hyper sibling, especially a younger one.   
  
Kaiba Seto, for all of being an idol, had very few friends. Of course, this might have been a result of his frigid attitude towards anyone he did not know, his 'holier than thou' attitude to anyone he _did_ know, and his constant mocking of anything that caught his attention (apparently nothing caught his attention in a positive way). The only person he did not openly ridicule was, surprisingly, Mutou Yuugi, a short, kind and well-liked boy of his own age, and who happened to be able to beat Kaiba in any game either of them would care to mention. This being as it was, Mutou Yuugi was often cursed in the Kaiba household, but not so often in public, and so one might (mistakenly, but understandably) form the opinion that Mutou Yuugi was, in some strange way, Kaiba's only friend.   
  
Yes, life was dull, even at Christmas time, for Kaiba, although somehow his constant gloom never seemed to affect his younger brother, Mokuba, who was constantly bouncing around the room, not unlike one of those little rubber bouncy balls that sometimes contain little plastic fish for one reason or another. Mokuba happened to like sugar quite a bit, and with the Kaiba mansion's budget, that was not a problem, financially. Sanity-wise, it was more of an issue, because a hyperactive Mokuba made for an extremely annoyed household. This was why Kaiba had locks on his door (that, and his odd completely unfounded paranoia that Pegasus or his executive council might be after him...), so that he could procure some amount of quiet when his brother got into the sugar box.   
  
As mentioned, the Kaiba family (consisting of Seto and Mokuba) was very well off. So well off that one might as well say filthy rich. And it was fairly evident, what with the huge mansion overlooking the city, the extensive security system, and the fact that Kaiba had a multi-million dollar corporation named after him, which owned most of the arcades in town. However, money does not buy happiness, and that is really where this story is going.  
  
Kaiba Seto, rich millionaire, teen idol, and genius, was unhappy. Yes, he was downright gloomy, even with Christmas trying its hardest to happen all about him.  
  
"Stupid foreign holidays. We aren't even Christians. Well, not most of us... Why can't we just celebrate our own holidays. There's nothing wrong with them." Of course, Seto didn't really like Japanese holidays any better (he had once gotten beaten up on Children's Day, and had to clean up after the fight that the _other_ boy had caused, after he had tried, failingly, to explain to his teacher that it hadn't been his fault), but things you don't like always look better when they are father away, and right now they were far away, and Christmas was looming over Japan like a heavy axe on a very thin string.   
  
Kaiba stalked through his mansion, dressed rather conservatively (he thought) in a blue shirt, blue pants and a large purple trench coat which stuck out perpendicular to his body after his waist. He found in his large desk the note that Mokuba had written to Santa Claus that year. Asking for many things which, while they would not be hard to find, would require a trip into the city (gasp!). A sacrifice that Kaiba supposed he would be willing to make for his younger brother, although it was a near thing (hey, risking your life in a duel against a crazy guy with scary hair and one eye was _nothing_ compared to going downtown in the holiday season).   
  
So off he set, having his driver drop him off in the middle of the booming metropolis with the promise to return and pick him up in the same place in four hours, on pain of death. Left to himself, Kaiba would probably have sought out a dark alley and hidden in it from any passing people until his time was up (he wasn't a coward, he was just antisocial. Yeah, that's it!). But, as he did not have that option, he set off into the crowd, hoping that his heavily starched and ironed trench coat would act as a barrier between him and the common people. It did, but because people with a coat that floated on its own were to be avoided, not because of the space it inhabited.   
  
Kaiba had decided that, annoying as it was, Domino city's downtown area was considerably cleaner and better-managed than other large cities, in many countries. This was, perhaps, because it was not as large as many of the cities he had been to on business, but he saw no reason why they couldn't clean up after themselves if Domino city could. Sure, they needed more money for that, but they had more people to provide it, didn't they? Still, as cities went it was clean and relatively safe, certainly safe for someone with Kaiba Seto's training in self-defense.   
  
He took a glance at the list, the first item already required him going somewhere that he really did not want to visit. In fact, reading down the list, nearly every item on it could be purchased in one store: the Mutou's game shop. The house of the one person in the world who was equal to him. And the one store in the world which he absolutely did _not_ want to enter. He would almost, he thought, rather return to Pegasus' castle then enter that store again. But this was for his brother, and he could deny him nothing. Especially not so soon after his failure to save him from Pegasus' grasps.   
  
The small bells attached to the store door rang merrily as he pushed it open harshly, he cared nothing for the fate of the bells, or the door, or for that matter, the entire store. The game shop, shaped as a turtle (from which it got its name as the Turtle Game shop) had been decorated for the season both outside and in. On the walls and from the gutters on the outside small green lights hung, emphasizing even further the odd shape of the store/dwelling. On the inside bright red bows and garlands of tinsel had been hung around the ceiling. Kaiba wondered fleetingly how the Mutous had managed to decorate their home, since none of them was taller than a light switch. His random train of thoughts was sharply derailed though, when he saw who was manning the counter. Instead of the old man, Mutou Yuugi sat on a tall stool behind it, staring wide-eyed at his customer, and obviously wondering if now would be a good time to contact his other self. Kaiba sighed and strode forwards; this was not going to be an enjoyable experience, nor one he would care to remember soon. It got worse though. Coming from the back rooms of the house, the voices of Yuugi's three stooges could be heard, singing out of tune and off beat.   
  
Yuugi, swallowing whatever had temporarily blocked his throat, stood up and moved out from behind the display case.  
  
"Hello, Kaiba-kun... Ummm, did you want to-"  
  
"Christmas presents." Kaiba's tone was gruff and low, hardly audible. At Yuugi's unbelieving look he repeated himself. "Christmas presents. Mokuba, Christmas, _shopping_." Good grief, now he was having trouble speaking. Could this day get any worse.   
  
Murphy's Law leaped into play with alacrity. The three stooges having, Kaiba supposed, registered the noise of the doorbell in some small, partially functioning part of their feeble minds, had come to investigate, and wreak their own special brand of havoc. The blond one was first out. He dropped the platter of cookies he had been holding. The platter, an oven cooking platter made of metal, survived easily. The cookies were not so lucky, and broke into thousands of tiny pieces and threw themselves across the floor, obviously hoping to cause as much trouble as possible. The girl ran in, attracted by the loud noise, wailed, and promptly leapt on dog-boy and began beating him about the head, sobbing about her cookies. The other boy came in to laugh at them, before noticing Kaiba and stopping in his tracks.  
  
"What are _you_ doing here, Kaiba? Come to cause more trouble? Or to get the crap beaten out of you again?" Honda did not like Kaiba. Neither, for that matter, did Jounouchi or Anzu. But they were too busy to express their opinions. Yuugi, universal moderator extraordinaire, sensed danger and leapt in.  
  
"Maa, maa, Honda-kun, Kaiba-kun is just here to buy some presents for his family. Right, Kaiba-kun?" Yuugi turned to Kaiba, his head tilted up to be able to make some form of eye contact.   
  
"No, your friend's right, I had nothing else to do, so, during the Christmas season, in the _height of traffic_ I thought I would just mosey on down here into the heart of ENEMY COUNTRY to play a GAME when it's FOURTY BELOW outside, carrying nothing but a SHOPPING LIST. Of course, I MUST be up to some nefarious plan. What WAS I thinking? I had better just go over into the corner and see if I can't think up any other idiotic plans while I'm about this one. Of course I'm gift buying, you idiot." Kaiba's sarcasm was a well practiced art, as was his use of hyperbole. That 'I'm smarter than you, and I know it' tone just came with the territory, of course.  
  
"Calm down, Kaiba-kun, Honda-kun was just a little suspicious. The last four or five times you've sought me out it was to duel, so he might have been a little justified in his opinion. But ANYway," Yuugi changed topics quickly, sensing once again, dangerous words about to be spoken, "what can we get for you. And I'm sure it's not forty below out. Look, the window's hardly frosted over." Yuugi pointed. Kaiba rolled his eyes.  
  
"I'm sure you wouldn't know, you've been locked inside by your other you, haven't you? I'll bet he doesn't like the cold too much, does he? Egypt never gets nearly this cold, he's probably off hiding in front of a furnace somewhere, isn't he?" He couldn't help it, baiting these suckers was just so _easy_. They were practically begging for it.   
  
Yuugi's eyes changed subtly, as did his hair, and his height (although not by enough to make very much of a difference. The problem of the Christmas decorations remained unsolved).   
  
"I have not locked him inside. And I have nothing against the cold. It's just that _some_ of us have to work, rather than spend our days gallivanting around the town." This was an obvious lie, as Yuugi's other self had wrapped his arms around himself, and was peering out of the corner of his eye at the thermostat.   
  
"Uh huh. You keep telling yourself. But in the mean time, would you mind bringing Yuugi back, I think I would prefer a sales clerk who can stand the temperature of his own store." Kaiba rolled his eyes, he could have remarked that the temperature in the room hardly felt more than a degree or two below room temperature, but that would delay getting Yuugi back, which would delay his shopping, which would delay his getting out of the damn store.  
  
A minute later small Yuugi had returned, and immediately confiscated the list from Kaiba, who had not even finished reading it himself. After giving it a quick glance, Yuugi fairly flew around the store, grabbing boxes and toys off the shelves almost without looking. When he was done, a pile of nine or ten boxes sat on the counter. Yuugi moved to stand on the side of the counter adjacent to Kaiba, rather than opposite from him, because if he did the latter the boxes blocked his vision of his customer.  
  
"Do you want to buy all of these, Kaiba-kun, or just pick one or two? These are all the items on the list that you can get here, or anywhere in town at all, I would think." Yuugi motioned towards the boxes. He hoped that if Kaiba did plan on purchasing all of them, he would not ask for gift wrapping. He was sure that was why his grandfather had made him do holiday duty, he just didn't want to do wrapping anymore. Kaiba looked down at Yuugi as if he were kidding.  
  
"I'll take all of them, of course." The tone of his voice was nearly affronted. Yuugi hopped over to the cash register and pecked in all the prices easily. It came up to 18,500 yen. Yuugi yelped slightly and checked the receipt. Everything was in order. Yuugi cleared his voice.  
  
"Umm, Kaiba-kun, it comes out to 18,000 yen..." He waited, expecting some sort of outbreak from Kaiba, who instead just shrugged and handed Yuugi a credit card.  
  
"I thought it might end up being 20,000, but whatever. I guess Mokuba's holding back this year. Hmm. What else's on that list?" Kaiba looked around for the list, but before he spotted it on the counter Yuugi had handed him his card back, and then pushed the boxes, receipt and list, shoved into plastic bags by Honda and Jounouchi (Anzu had removed herself to grieve for her cookies in solitude), over to Kaiba who grabbed them quickly. With a last frigid glance at the three teens, Kaiba Seto stalked out of the store and very nearly avoided being blown away by a large gust of wind.   
  
Carried by the wind, thousands of tiny frozen water drops flew through the air, crashing painfully against Kaiba's face and hands. He grimaced, turned his back against the wind and flipped up the collar of his coat. It did not help overly much. He wandered through the blizzard, not familiar enough with the downtown area to know instinctively where he was, nor sociable enough to drop into one of the stores to inquire. Peering at his watch, he discovered that he had only taken an hour and, according to Yuugi, had bought all on the list that was to be found here in Domino city. Which left him lost in the metropolis with three hours to spend in the cold and no idea where his pick up point was. He supposed that he could always phone the mansion and order someone to come and pick him up, and promptly pulled out his phone. Sheltering in a doorway, he punching in the numbers to of his home phone number with his thumb lightening fast, and then held it with both hands cupped to his ear, hoping to block out the sounds of the blizzard raging about him.  
  
The phone was picked up by his brother.  
  
"Mokuba? It's me, patch me through to the garage." His little brother complied, recognizing the tone in his voice as one that boded immediate bodily harm to whomever did not do as it demanded. A slight flutter of static, and the phone was picked up by the driver.  
  
"It's Kaiba, I have finished my business. You will come and pick me up immediately."  
  
There was a rather pregnant pause. The driver's voice came back over the phone, about an octave higher than it was usually.  
  
"I'm sorry sir, but the snow storm... the roads to downtown from the mansion have been completely blocked with snow and downed trees. We are snowed in, and you are snowed out." The voice carried a tone of 'please please don't hurt me!'   
  
Kaiba sighed. If the roads had been blocked off, then there really was nothing he could do about it (except walk home, a prospect which he didn't enjoy thinking about), but still, he should have been informed earlier, when there would have been a chance to do something about getting him back. He mentioned this to the driver, and then hung up, leaving the question of whether the driver would be fired when he returned open ended.   
  
Essentially blinded by the storm, Kaiba wandered from street to street until he was attracted to one shop (he presumed it was a shop, he couldn't really tell) with a myriad of coloured lights around its top. He stumbled in through the door, and his eyes widened.  
  
"Damn."  
  
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After Kaiba had left, taking his annoyed aura with him, things at the Turtle shop had been going slowly. No more customers ventured in, no doubt due to the storm that was raging outside. Almost an hour after Kaiba's departure Yuugi's grandfather had pulled himself in, and then a large Christmas tree after him. The four kids had helped to brush off the snow and carry the tree into the back portion of the shop where they had to saw off parts of the trunk in order to force it into the tree holder (Jounouchi had volunteered to whack the tree holder until it fit on, but Yuugi had stopped him, feeling that the tree would probably not appreciate that, and nor would the holder which looked to be about 50 years old and on its last legs). Just as they had finally gotten the tree standing up, and vacuumed the needles off the floor (getting it through the door had pulled off a considerable number of them), the bells attached to the store door rang, indicating a customer. Yuugi ran out into the store part of the house to find that Kaiba Seto had returned and was now standing in the middle of the floor covered in snow, dripping water onto the floor and looking utterly horrified. At the sight of Yuugi he shook himself (some snow went flying with this motion) and turned to leave. Yuugi ran forward to stop him.  
  
"You can't go out in that storm, Kaiba-kun, you'll freeze, or something... Just look at you now!" This was a valid point, Kaiba's cheeks had been turned red from the biting winds, and his lips looked almost blue. To say nothing of his soaking hair (which was at least an inch longer than it usually seemed when wet).  
  
"Haven't you heard, Yuugi? I'm the ice man himself. Now, if you excuse me, I'll just be-"   
  
He was cut off by the timely (or, perhaps in Kaiba's view, untimely) entrance of Yuugi's grandfather, who was nothing if not as kind as his grandson.  
  
"Ahhh, Kaiba-kun. You look like you've been out in the cold too long. Come in and we'll get you some tea. We were just about to decorate our tree, perhaps you can help." Sugoroku turned and entered the dwelling part of the store, giving Kaiba little choice. The teen was surprised to say the least, the last time they had met Kaiba had very nearly given the old man a heart attack (and it hadn't been exactly an 'accident' either).   
  
Kaiba, sighing, followed Yuugi, shedding his coat onto a coat rack by the door. Normally he would not be caught without it, but when wet it weighed about 30 pounds, and that could get tiring (not to mention cold). He was led to what he surmised passed for a living room, a small room with a two couch set and a TV set up in the corner opposite from the corner where the two couches met. At least, Kaiba presumed that that was what it was supposed to be. In reality, the TV was perched precariously on one of the couches while an overly-large Christmas tree had taken over its spot. Jounouchi and Honda were attempting to tie said tree to the wall in order to prevent it from falling over and breaking all ornaments that would later be put on it. Anzu was sitting on the couch that was not harboring the TV, giving directions. The two had just finished tying it up (with what appeared to be fishing line) when Kaiba entered. Both hunched slightly, in an almost protective manner, and stepped forwards. Yuugi went over to reassure them of Kaiba's good intentions. Seto was quite sure he had never said anything about good intentions, but remained silent. He _supposed_ that staying here was better than staying out in the snow storm. If only marginally.   
  
Yuugi's grandfather entered with tea for all, and Kaiba found himself sitting next to the TV staring at the large tree in front of him.  
  
"Are you proposing to decorate that?" Kaiba addressed his question to the company in general, too lazy to look about for someone specific.  
  
"Yeah, we get one every year. Although I think this year's is the biggest yet. We only just got it through the door! But it's going to look _great_ when we get all the stuff on it!" Yuugi leapt off the couch he had been sitting on to drag in a large box, apparently filled with ornaments. The lid was opened and Kaiba found that his surmise was correct, as garlands and little lights spilled out onto the floor, aided by Yuugi and his grandfather, both of whom obviously enjoyed this part of the holiday the best. Kaiba stared.  
  
"I didn't think you would be into Christmas, Yuugi." While this was true, it occurred to Seto that he had never really given a lot of thought to it before.  
  
"Oh, we're not, really. I mean, not all the religious stuff, and hardly even the presents. We just like the lights, and the decorating. The tree's always so much fun, and the outdoor lights look really pretty! Usually people in the neighborhood come and help us put up the lights, and sometimes their kids come and decorate the tree too. I guess this year the weather's just too bad. But at least we got the outside lights up, and that's the part that's hard."   
  
There was one mystery answered. Kaiba shrugged and watched as the Mutous strung up the lights, and then started on the garlands, encouraging the three other teens who were almost family to them anyway. Kaiba made a 'pfft' sound and crossed his arms.  
  
The garlands went on, and then the real ornaments were broken out, along with the standard "what's _this_", "there's no hook on this one" and "oooo, I think I might'a broke it...". Kaiba watched as the tree slowly gained colour, as its branches became weighted down by the heavy decorations hooked onto them. The two Mutous had the bottom of the tree covered, and their three guests were taking care of the top. When the decorating had begun in earnest, Yuugi's grandfather had slipped a Christmas CD into a CD player somewhere, and the tunes were floating in softly, so as not to interfere with any conversations taking place. Kaiba finished his tea, and found that there was no more in the immediate area. He looked about for someone to inform about this atrocity, and found that only he was not occupied with something else. Yuugi seemed also to have noticed this, and he turned to Kaiba for the solution.  
  
"Kaiba-kun, would you mind making some more tea, or something, as you're not too busy here? The kitchen's right though there," he pointed ('too' busy was, of course, an exaggeration. He wasn't doing _anything_). Kaiba waited until he turned back to the tree to let his anger show. This, this _kid_ was ordering him about? To make TEA, no less. He had half a mind to storm out, but that reminded him of the actual storm outside, and of his precarious shelter in this home. Sighing, he stood, took the tray, and ventured into the indicated area.  
  
Said area turned out to be a kitchen, as promised, but the size (or lack thereof) was, to him, appalling. His _closet_ was bigger than this thing. The kitchen itself was rectangular in shape, but since both of the short sides were entrances to different rooms, the only counter space was on either of the long walls. These counters were covered in cookie sheets, icing, flour and plates heaped up with cookies. Had they not been there the counter space still would have been crammed, for the various racks of things, a microwave, a toaster et cetera took up a lot of space. Which meant that the counters were wide. Which meant that there was hardly enough floor space for two people to walk abreast (there would not have been near enough for his coat, but fortunately he was not wearing it. When you wear something that wide that trails behind you constantly, after a while you start estimating the distances between objects and using it as the measure of whether or not you will fit, instead of your body's width, as most normal people do). Kaiba rolled his eyes and shoved some baking trays out of the way to make room for his load, which he set down with minimal caution.  
  
The kettle was sitting by the sink, and he filled it with water and plugged it in. 'I guess they don't need much room anyway, the two of them put together wouldn't make up the mass of any one adult.'   
  
Kaiba knew how to handle himself in almost every situation, including a domestic one (how to handle himself consisted of what to do with equipment provided, of course, not how to act or speak. He used the same measure for that no matter whom he was talking to or where he was). Despite being rich, and living in a mansion, there were no servants in the Kaiba household. There were three maids, whose responsibility it was to see that everything was cleaned and such, and the driver, all of whom lived in the house, in furnished suites in the basement, but no others. Body guards had been hired from time to time while he had been younger, but now that Seto was both old enough and skilled enough to defend himself he didn't bother with them. There was, however, always someone around to watch over Mokuba. Most of the time it was him, but when it couldn't be he had two others take over, effectively shadowing Mokuba, but not making their presence known.  
  
Kaiba knew his way around the kitchen for the simple reason that there was no cook employed at his mansion, he cooked everything he and his brother ate. There were several kitchenettes on the lower levels for the use of the maids and the driver, and a bank account had been set up for them which left them responsible for purchasing their dinners. He, of course, kept a close eye on the account, and they all knew it. Kaiba wasn't stingy, but he never splurged on anything that wasn't for his company or his brother. He could easily have afforded a more extravagant lifestyle but felt no need for one. It was also Seto's feeling that there was no need to spoil Mokuba. Well, that was, apart from living in a mansion and being driven to school in a limousine, and receiving whatever he asked for at Christmas. There would be no babying of Mokuba, he would learn to take care of himself, how to cook, clean run a business.   
  
When these thoughts had finished running their course, Kaiba discovered that the kettle had long since started to whistle, and turned to deal with it.  
  
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After an hour of tree trimming, Kaiba (who, if you remember, had had very little patience for the whole holiday season to begin with) was completely Christmased out. One more jolly carol and so help him, he was going to track down the singer, with his _personal_ funds and shove the CD down her (he certainly hoped that singer was a female...) throat. At this point he was willing to brave the blizzard over staying another minute in the Mutou household, and made this abundantly clear to Yuugi, who (wisely) decided not to argue this time. Kaiba was given his coat, now dry, and loaned a soft felt hat and a pair of mittens. The mittens and the hat did not match, the hat was ridiculously outdated and the mittens were knit of brown and white wool and thus made his hands itch, but he supposed that if wearing these pathetic attempts at winter clothing paid his debt he was willing to do it (or, to phrase it less conservatively, anything to get him away from the damned Christmas cheer).   
  
Standing in the open doorway, one hand stuffed deep into his coat's pocket, the other holding the bags filled with his purchases, he mentally cursed as he was called from behind by Yuugi. He had half a mind to leave, and let the frozen door slam in the smaller boy's face but he was, after all, the only one (other than his brother, of course) who was worthy to speak to him, and so Kaiba turned, keeping the door open as an obvious hint that he wanted to leave.  
  
"What is it now? You haven't destroyed my evening enough already?"   
  
"Have you read the list you gave me? I mean, all of it?" Yuugi stood close enough to not have to shout over the outside winds but far enough away to not be cold (Yami had obviously given him hell for that at some earlier point in time).  
  
"Why? Have you missed something important?" Kaiba kept the note of panic out of his voice, covering it with apparent anger at what he took to be Yuugi's incompetence. He turned back into the store, about to put down the bags and rummage through them for the list.  
  
"No, no, you don't need it now. You bought everything on that list that could be bought. But... you should probably read it again. When you get home. What he wants, you'll have there. I just thought... you wouldn't want to let him down." Yuugi turned, shivered slightly and hugged himself, before turning to walk back into the living area of the Turtle Shop. Kaiba stared after him, but you didn't manage multi-million dollar companies without being able to take a hint, and he turned and ventured out into the streets.   
  
Although Kaiba didn't know Domino City very well, he did know that it was on a slight hill, and on the top of that hill was where he was heading. Which meant that he just had to keep climbing uphill. In the blinding snow, lugging bags of games. He sighed, and watched as his breath was blown away. 'Next year, I'm giving Mokuba a Christmas account and he can buy his own presents!'   
  
Seto ordinarily had no problem with buying presents for his younger brother (other than that the process was time consuming), but when the time for buying said presents corresponded with the Winter Solstice, that was just out of the question. Or it would be from now on. He was going to make a note when he got home.   
  
If he got home. The Turtle Shop might have been annoying as beginner duelists who thought they could beat _him_ without a strategy, but it was better than freezing in a blizzard, wasn't it?  
  
"Dear lord, if I die now, they'll find my frozen corpse, lying on the road side (now he was out of town and beginning the climb up the hill to the mansion) carrying a bag of board games and wearing a hat that must be at least seventy years old, and that obviously hasn't been cleaned since it was made. And I'm sure someone would try to change Kaiba Corp's ownership laws due to insanity in the family." Kaiba gave a bark of laughter, brushed a few inches of snow off his shoulder and kept walking.  
  
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The front doors of the Kaiba mansion flew open and snow was blown in, reducing the temperature in the front hall to something well below zero. After a minute Kaiba stumbled in, kicked the doors closed and pounded them locked with his whole fist. His hand didn't feel like bending into any other shape at the moment, and he was too tired to fight with it. He shook himself and layers of snow flew off to form a small circle of the white fluffy powder around his feet. He stalked over it, walked over to the closet and dropped the bags with a thud. The gloves came off after several sharp tugs from his teeth, and the hat followed, batted off by the fist in the general direction of the closet. His coat he dropped onto the floor, it was too frozen to bother with until it thawed a bit.  
  
It was then that Mokuba made an appearance, creeping out from the hallway that led to the main kitchen. Seeing his brother standing in the front hallway and not some thief (that would have been a major cause for concern, as the mansion's security was almost impenetrable) Mokuba ran forwards, slipped on a pile of snow and tumbled straight into his older sibling's legs, knocking them out from under him. The two of them fell to the floor in a pile, but Seto did manage to kick the closet door closed as he went down, and the door shoved the gifts into dark space it enclosed with its movement.   
  
"'Nii-sama! You're freezing! And wet. Where have you been?" Mokuba scrambled off Seto, and ran over to the wall to turn on the light. With its aid he could clearly see his big brother sitting on the cold marble floor, brown hair soaking and dripping onto his shoulders, lips blue from the cold and cheeks red from the wind, standing out startlingly from his white face. Overall, he just looked _exhausted_.   
  
"I've been out. I am going to bed. And so are you." He pulled himself to his feet, knocked off his shoes and stalked off down the corridor that led to his room. Mokuba was left behind to stare at the hall, which now looked as though a blizzard had passed through it. He shrugged, doubtless deciding that it could be taken care of the next day, and followed his brother down the now wet hall.  
  
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Seto woke up the next morning to find himself lying on the floor, with a runny nose and a head ache. The night before had been a nightmare, getting out of his clothing with frozen hands had not proven to be an exciting activity, nor had trying to warm up his hands under hot water, no matter how cold the water actually was it felt as though it was burning his hands. He had shed his wet clothing in favor of heavy flannel pajamas (which Mokuba had given him for Christmas the year before), sitting down on the floor while he laboriously buttoned the top up. When he had finished he had been too tired to move, and so had fallen asleep there on the floor.  
  
This had perhaps not been the smartest move ever, his back was now informing him. Seto groaned and pulled himself over to his bed, and then up into it.   
  
"Mental note: never go shopping again. _Ever_." His voice, gravely and low, echoed exactly how he felt. It was at that moment that Mokuba entered, hair combed (well, as combed as it ever got, in any case), dressed with eyes shinning happily, ready to face the day. If he hadn't been Seto's younger brother, Seto would cheerfully have hit him over the head. When you're sick, you do _not_ want to see happy people. Especially not happy young hyper children.  
  
"'Nii-sama! You're still in bed!? It's nine o'clock (Seto was usually up at seven to begin his work for the day...)! And tomorrow's Christmas!" Mokuba did not move, physically, but he still managed to give the impression of a child bouncing around the room with excitement.   
  
"Is it now?" The sarcasm was out before he could stop it, his mood too foul for him to completely reign in his usually caustic tongue. Mokuba took it as an expression of ignorance, though, and answered in the affirmative.  
  
"I'll be up in a minute. Why don't you go down and try to make some breakfast? And have someone see to the front hall, it was a mess last night." Yes, a mess of his own creation. Kaiba had hauled himself out of bed (it hadn't even had time to warm up) and started dressing before he remembered that he had left Mokuba's presents in the closet in the front hall. And doubtless, someone would be opening that to deal with his coat. Possibly even Mokuba. He ran out of the room.  
  
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Kei, the new maid, had been sent by Mokuba-sama to deal with the mess in the front hall. Someone (obviously Kaiba-sama) had come in in the middle of the night and left the front door open long enough for a considerable amount of snow to collect on the marble floor. It had all melted, and some of it had evaporated but a good deal water still lay in large puddles here and there on the marble floor. A soaking coat of Kaiba-sama's had been left lying in front of the closet, as well as a large pair of shoes (further proof that it had been him who had come in late and caused this mess), and they were now in a puddle of their own. Kei clicked her tongue and picked the coat up, shaking it. Moving it allowed her to see the growing puddle leaking out from underneath the closet door. She clucked again and reached for the door handle, dreading what she might find inside.  
  
A commanding shout echoed from the stairs behind her as she began to pull the door open, and she turned around and froze.   
  
Kaiba-sama was the undisputed master of the house. He was cold and calculating towards all but his younger brother, Mokuba-sama, and showed no feelings at all towards the staff, save occasionally anger. If you saw him coming towards you in the halls you didn't speak to him, you turned and looked for a linen closet to poke your nose into in an attempt at looking busy. He was always watching, but you often forgot it and many managed to make fools of themselves in front of him, and never knew he had seen them until they were out on the streets. Still, despite his icy attitude he had quite a following, and most of the maids fell into that category. And so, as you can imagine, to see Kaiba-sama come running like a bat out of hell towards you, shouting to stop could be both a frightening and a wonderful experience. However, when you added in the fact that Kaiba-sama was running in only his boxers and a large blue flannel pajama top with yellow fuzzy sheep on it (not even any socks), the result added up to only one emotion: utter embarrassment.   
  
From there, things only got worse. Kei had not yet had time to wipe up the puddles, having only just arrived, and Kaiba-sama, in his bare feet on a wet marble floor, sprinting like a cheetah, never stood a chance. He slipped his second step off the carpet and went careening out of control, just as Mokuba had the night before. The only differences were that a) he was considerably taller and heavier than Mokuba, and thus had more speed and b) there was nothing soft for him to crash into. Oh, sure, there was Kei, but he was certainly not going to crash into the _maid_. As a result he ended up hitting the closet door at high speeds, high enough to stun him.  
  
Kei watched in terror as Kaiba-sama came flying across the room towards her, unable to stop, and then smashed into the door she had just been about to open, knocking himself down flat and lying where he had fallen in a puddle of cold water, in only his boxers and a pajama top. Kei considered resigning right then. Kaiba-sama groaned and opened his eyes, staring up at Kei, who smiled nervously and backed away.   
  
"You are one of the maids?" He didn't move, but his voice sounded horrible.   
  
Kei twitched, but nodded, lowering her eyes to the floor, away from his freezing stare.  
  
"You will go into the closet. In it you will find three plastic bags. You will take them and put them under my bed, in my room. You will not, under pain of death, tell Mokuba about the bags. Under an even higher pain, that of your job, you will not tell _anyone_ about this morning's incident, is that clear?"  
  
Kei swallowed and nodded.  
  
"Very well. Off you go with the bags. And be sure to clean up this mess when you are finished." Kaiba-sama scooted away from the door to allow her access to the closet's contents. She grabbed the bags hurriedly and ran off, heels clicking on marble, eager to get away from the sight of her master lying prone on the floor in his underwear, staring at her with cold eyes. She didn't give a second thought to the contents of the bags, and she never saw Kaiba-sama again (it was very possible to live in the same house as him and never see him once, if one was not on cleaning detail in the areas he inhabited). She did, however, receive an unexpected and unexplained bonus after Christmas.  
  
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Kaiba dragged himself out of the front hallway, cold and wet all over again, and limped back up to his room where he found that the maid had put the bags under his bed as ordered. He showered, staying under the hot water longer than usual, and then dressed himself in slightly warmer clothes than usual. Still groggy, and still possessed of a headache and runny nose he ate the breakfast prepared for him by Mokuba (if you could count putting cereal in milk preparing), and returned to his bed where he remained for the rest of the day, pecking at his laptop.  
  
Fortunately, for Mokuba in any case, the Christmas tree had been set up earlier in the week, and so having his 'nii-sama in bed all day didn't affect too many of his Christmas activities. It did, however, affect the winter ones, especially games in the snow. Playing outside in the cold was just that, _cold_, if you were alone. Not that Kaiba Seto had ever played in the snow. Seto had, however once they had become Kaibas he had stopped. But Mokuba had hoped that maybe his 'nii-sama would this year, after the events of the Duelist Kingdom. Apparently he had been wrong, and now he couldn't even see his brother at all, since when he stayed in his room to work it meant he absolutely didn't want to be disturbed.  
  
The day passed quickly for Seto, he spend most of it staring at the screen of his laptop rather than reading what was showing on it, his mind a thousand miles away, going over duels he had seen, duels he had played, and those that he would like to see or play. It wasn't until that evening, after having dinner (Mokuba had brought him some up when he hadn't come down) that he had remembered Yuugi's words to him on his parting. "... You should probably read it again. When you get home. What he wants, you'll have there. I just thought... you wouldn't want to let him down."   
  
Let Mokuba down? Was there something on the list that his younger brother wanted from the mansion? Seto shut down his computer, placed it safely on his bedside table and tumbled out of his bed with a remarkable lack of coordination for someone who had a black belt in several martial arts.   
  
Under the bed the bags of gifts still sat, undisturbed, soaking the carpet under them. Seto's eyes opened wide and his hands shot out, grabbing the bags and pulling them into the light. Fortunately they were waterproof, and the water on the carpet had come from the outside of the bags.   
  
He pulled out the gifts and found, to his dismay, that he had also forgotten to wrap them. Which meant that he would have to venture out of his room, again.   
  
This second trip was far less eventful and he returned weighted down with the wrapping paper, scissors, ribbon and tape. When he had finished wrapping the gifts he looked at the clock that sat on his bedside table, now shoved behind his laptop. It was late enough though that the hands were pointing to the top of the clock and he could still tell the time. 12:50. It had been Christmas for fifty minutes. As if he cared. Still, it did mean that Mokuba would be in bed, and so he took up the presents and made his way down to the living room in which a large Christmas tree sat, decorated entirely with store-bought, themed ornaments. The entire tree matched, every ornament closely resembled every other and the garlands and the lights were colour coordinated both with each other and with the ornaments. Somehow, despite the fact that it was a live tree, and would die in a week or two, it still looked artificial. Kaiba shrugged and placed the gifts under it.   
  
A few were already there, and he glanced at them briefly. While most were from Mokuba, there were one or two from the maids, and one from his driver. Who still didn't know if he would hold his job past Christmas. Seto felt a small pang of guilt. Not because of the presents, staff received theirs in Christmas bonuses, but whatever he might personally think about the holiday it was rather cruel to keep someone hanging over a prolonged break, unsure whether or not they would have a job when the holiday was over... He scribbled a quick note on a piece of paper he found in the kitchen by the phone and dropped it off on the doorstep of the driver's suite, before returning to his bed, turning off the light and closing his eyes. The forgotten list lay on the floor under the discarded shopping bags.  
  
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I do not make excuses Neither do I need solace Only I believe  
  
A heart bound to false liberties Cannot grasp the truth  
  
I want to defend with these blood-imbued hands A life like mine is a fading falling star   
  
Staring at the distant sky with sad eyes Forever searching  
  
I turn into a bird That flies with wounded wings above a too-wide world  
  
My present self I do not need sympathy In the midst of war I am a flaming falling star LONELY...   
  
Present and future Are engulfed in the flames of battle and everything is a dream So our lives and the waning smiles Will surely make a new world  
  
You who hide your heart till the end Stare at the truth   
  
Be the legendary bird That flies free till any place in the blue skies   
  
To the hope born from sorrow a fading falling star LONELY...   
  
Friendship and memories Drift with the fate of battle and everything is a dream The courage to brave the storms Is surely the light to make a new era  
  
Present and future Are engulfed in the flames of battle and everything is a dream So our lives and the waning smiles Will surely make a new world  
  
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Kaiba woke up in the middle of the night, awoken by his clock which had randomly started piping in the radio. He stared at it, and wondered if the amount of energy it would take to turn it off would be worth it. The song that had woken him ended, and the clock shut up. Kaiba stared at it. 4:30. Not exactly the middle of the night then... More awake for a minute of thought he reached over to pick it up, misjudged his proximity to the edge of the bed and fell off it (again), landing with a thud on the pile of plastic bags which Mokuba's gifts had come in. He lay on the floor, staring up at the clock for a minute before he remembered the list. Scrambling off the bags he flicked on his bedside lamp and searched through the bags, discarding two receipts before finding what he was looking for. The list was exactly as he remembered it and he scanned through the items on it. Various games and such, which had been bought at the Turtle Shop. He was about to scrunch it up and pick up the phone to call Yuugi (and let _him_ know exactly what time it was), when he spotted the last item on the list, spaced a few lines down from the others, and in pencil rather than pen, as all the others had been. An afterthought, a hopeless wish.  
  
"For Christmas I would like:  
  
The new PX pack Duel Monsters travel board ... ...  
  
And for 'Nii-sama and me to have fun together at Christmas  
  
Kaiba looked up from the note, shocked and not at all sure how to deal with it. And then he looked outside. In his haste to get to bed last night he had neglected to shut the blinds, and now the light from his bedside lamp lit up the area outside his window, or at least the small white flakes drifting down past it. It was snowing again.  
  
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Kaiba Mokuba, for a multi-millionaire, lived a pretty normal life. He went to school, had friends, played games and had an older brother who was the coolest older brother ever. The fact that he had no parents didn't bother him most of the time (except those few times when he actually remembered them clearly, and then he missed them), as his 'nii-sama took care of him, always. His 'nii-sama was not though, however cool, the _best_ older brother ever. Yes, Mokuba knew that he _loved_ him, but they never did anything together, other than get captured by mad schemers, planning to take over Kaiba Corp. Every day of his life was the same, he came down, found Seto at the table already eating his own breakfast, and found a plate of whatever the breakfast of choice that morning was waiting for him. Seto would be reading the paper. When he finished he packed his lunch (or sometimes Seto would make him one), put it in his rucksack and get a lift to school from the driver, along with Seto who would still be reading the paper. After school he would be picked up again and taken home where he would be left alone until dinner, the only time of the day that he could actually _talk_ to his 'nii-sama, before Seto brought out the laptop to work on company business, leaving Mokuba to his own devices once again.  
  
It was a dreary, lonely cycle. Oh, he understood that to keep Kaiba Corporation running at peak efficiency required the exec. to know at all times what was happening and to be on top of all situations, but couldn't Seto make _some_ time in his day for his younger brother? In desperation he had even wished for that on his Christmas list, but if his brother had seen it, he was apparently ignoring it, as he had spent all Christmas Eve in his room. Which meant that today would be another lonely Christmas day.   
  
Mokuba got up, earlier than usual (even if his one important present wasn't going to be given to him, there were still others, and Christmas fever (the illness that makes all little children and some older ones get up at six on Christmas morning to wake up their parents/older brother and open gifts right then and there) was upon him), pulled on a bathrobe and made a beeline for his 'nii-sama's room. Which he found empty, although it did look as though a hurricane had passed through it. The bed was unmade, a pile of plastic bags lay on one side of it, and almost all the drawers in the room had been pulled open, rejected clothes lying here and there, and everywhere. Mokuba stared. He had _never_ seen his 'nii-sama make such a mess. Seto was the cleanest, most organized person he knew. One thought sprang into his mind immediately, and from there refused to be dislodged. 'Kidnapping!'   
  
Mokuba sprinted downstairs, almost tripping on the staircase thrice, and found the front door closed, but not locked. He threw on a winter coat and some shoes and ran out, not even bothering to shut the door after him. In the snow there was only one set of footprints, and they led, not to the gate, but around to the front of the mansion. Mokuba followed them, wading with difficulty through the (for him) almost waist-deep snow.   
  
Around the side of the house someone tall wearing a long soft brown coat could be seen pushing snow here and there, and appeared to be making a large dome of it. As Mokuba drew nearer the person dropped down out of sight behind a bank of snow. Mokuba ran, plowing through the snow. What if this person, whoever he was, had carried his 'nii-sama out of the house, and was burying him now, in their own front yard. (If this was the case, one wonders what Mokuba would plan to do about it, as he was considerably smaller than our mystery man.)   
  
On the last step before he would have stopped, Mokuba tripped over something buried in the snow and fell, face first, onto the person digging in the snow in his front yard. He looked up, ready to punch them in the face like his 'nii-sama had taught him (of course, in that situation it had been more of punching the attacker in the knees, but now that he was close enough...). Except that it wasn't the face of a stranger. It was the face of his 'nii-sama. His cheeks were red, and his face was pale from the cold, and his hair was wet (either with snow or sweat), and he was smiling.  
  
"Merry Christmas, Mokuba."  
  
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Thank you for reading, and hope you enjoyed! Thank you very kindly to any and all reviewers! 


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